Random Comic Review: Exxon presents Mickey and Goofy

  Exxon presents Mickey and Goofy

There’s something creepy about a Disney comic sponsored by an oil company. Just imagine a children‘s book written by the Devil himself. This comic has a propaganda quality to it that I find irresistible because extremely bias rags that pander to children are the best! I love how they plainly state an extreme position without even flinching. These comics might as well be leaflets handed out to en masse. Corporate sponsored comics are usually a vehicle for selling a product, but this one is on a whole new level. Energy is politics, and this Reagan era comic serves the sole purpose of distorting the view of a pliable mind.

Mickey serves as the mouthpiece for the Exxon Corporation, talking up the benefits of oil and bashing other forms of energy. Immediately, it becomes very obvious that the person reading the comic is supposed to read the book in the perspective of Goofy. Every childlike question that Goofy asks warrants an extremely elaborate “educational answer“ from Mickey.

For example, Goofy asks if we will ever run out of gasoline, to which Mickey responds, “Maybe, but that’s why we need to do more drilling here in America to get more oil.” To which Goofy responds, “Can’t we just get it from other countries?” Then Mickey goes into a graphic monolog with pictures, explaining how we can’t trust other countries and the only way for us to be safe is to rape our natural resources. I’m paraphrasing, but you get the point.

When asked about other types of energy, Mickey goes on for three pages talking about the advantages of natural gas, portraying it as a god. He warns that when we run out, everyone will become homeless and eventually die. Again, this is not an exact quote, but its close enough for reviewing purposes.

'Exxon Mickey' is full of helpful energy saving tips like: drive 55 miles an hour, turn down the heat, and turn off lights. Otherwise, we’ll run out of oil and we’ll all die a miserable death. Exxon’s all about the options!

Electric power is mentioned as being okay. That is of course, as long as coal is used to produce the steam that powers the generators that create said electricity.

At the end of the comic, half of a page is dedicated to solar and hydroelectric power. Niagara Falls is listed as the only water source powerful enough to create usable energy, and solar power is wrote off as ridiculous, impractical, and costly.

Prologue:

This Exxon comic may seem 'Goofy', but not much has changed politically since the publishing of this comic. Actually, Big Oil is much more influential now, than it was when this comic was written back in 1986. In light of recent discourse concerning high gas prices and interest in renewable energy sources, the Energy Lobby has recently spent record amounts of dough courting politicians to persuade them to create energy policies that favor them, not the citizens.

To date, six of the ten biggest companies in the world are oil companies, and four of the six are direct descendants of the infamous 'monopoly beast' known as the Standard Oil company, and thanks to four recent mergers, Standard Oil is well on its way to being a single entity once again.Gawish!